JC Baseball: Tough foe in Howard awaits Chaparrals

By Oscar LeRoy Sports Writer

Published 7:00 pm, Thursday, April 22, 2010

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

JC Baseball: Tough foe in Howard awaits Chaparrals

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

The Midland College baseball team is undoubtedly going to be in for a big challenge this weekend when it plays No. 4-ranked and defending national champion Howard College in a four-game Western Junior College Athletic Conference series.

But regardless of who the Chaparrals play this weekend, MC coach David Coleman is more concerned about getting the bad taste out of his mouth after last weekend’s disappointing series split with eighth-place El Paso Community College.

“That’s the most disappointed I’ve been since I’ve been at Midland College. It was atrocious,” said Coleman about the way his team played last weekend. “It had nothing to do with El Paso. It had to do with our approach to the game and how we went about it. We went out there and played absolutely scared and full of anxiety.”

The Chaparrals (27-15-1, 14-10 in WJCAC) had a big opportunity last weekend to make a move in the conference standings by playing one of the cellar teams in the WJCAC. Instead, MC dropped the first two games of the series, 6-4 and 11-6, before the Chaps bounced back the next day and swept the doubleheader, 3-2 and 14-3.

“We just came out timid,” said sophomore catcher/first baseman Toby Semler. “On Friday, we just felt like we had pressure on us. We just didn’t play like we should have.”

The Chaps remain in fourth place in the WJCAC standings, meaning if the season ended today, they would qualify for the regional tournament for the second consecutive year. But with only three weeks remaining in the regular season, the Chaps know they can’t afford any more setbacks.

The Chaps will find out what they’re made of this weekend when they face the Hawks (33-7, 18-2) beginning with a doubleheader at 3 p.m. today at Christensen Stadium. The series switches to Big Spring on Saturday with the doubleheader beginning at noon. The Hawks will bring with them not only one of the top offenses in the nation, but a very good pitching staff.

“After last week it makes us want it a little bit more,” said sophomore pitcher David Walkling, who will get the start in today’s game one. “We have to turn things around. We have to take a game-by-game approach and win every pitch on both side. As sophomores we’ve got to step up a lot. After last week, we have to show some leadership …we have to. We also have to take a good attitude into the weekend and hope we come out on top.”

But regardless of who the Chaps play this weekend, the focus for them is going to be doing things right, not only on the field but in their preparation.

“We just need to play the game and not the team,” Semler said. “After last weekend, it put things in perspective for us. It just put is in a little tougher position, but I think we can handle it.”

Coleman also expects his team to show up a play a lot better than last week, which was admittedly a step in the wrong direction.

“We may or may not win any games this weekend, but I bet we don’t play scared, passive or timid,” Coleman said. “We just need to get as many wins as we can get to make sure we qualify for the (regional) tournament.”